 Dawn Dance Weekend - FAQs
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Q: Is the Ann Arbor Dawn Dance Weekend an all-night dance?
A: No, it's a full weekend of dancing and music -- Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday morning and afternoon. In addition to a wide variety of great dance sessions, the weekend includes workshops with teaching on specific topics related to different styles of dancing, singing, playing instrumental music, and dance leading.
Q: If you don't dance all night, why is your name Ann Arbor Dawn Dance Weekend?
A: The event began in 1982 as the Ann Arbor Dawn Dance, which was an all-night dance, and continued as an annual all-night dance through 1996. Over the years, the event kept expanding until it included a Friday night dance, Saturday afternoon workshops, and many great performers who traveled a significant distance to get here. Although some of us enjoyed the peculiar tradition of dancing all night, many of us who were on the organizing committee for the 1997 event felt that the best way to allow the most people to fully enjoy the great array of talent we were assembling was to try to get as much performing time scheduled into a weekend in more or less normal afternoon and evening hours. That was the year we abandoned the all-night format. We felt that more people could enjoy our headliners if they were not scheduled to play from, say, 1 am to 4 am, for example.
A few members of the organizing committee have been involved in the event since the beginning or nearly that long, while others have become involved more recently, but all of us feel connected to the tradition that began when a few people got together and decided to put on the first all-night Ann Arbor Dawn Dance, so we named the weekend in honor of the historical event. It's a name that lets you see our roots.
Q: How many people do you expect to attend?
A: We usually have 400 - 500 attendees from all over the United States and Canada.
Q: I didn't register in advance. Can I still attend, or is registration closed?
A: Yes, you can come anytime, with or without registering. You can walk in the door for any session during the weekend. We've never closed registration, and the school has always held our numbers very comfortably. There's an advantage to you in registering ahead, because the advanced registration pricing is better than the door pricing.
Q: I'm traveling from out-of-town. Where can I stay during the weekend?
A: The Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas have lots of reasonably-priced hotels (and some fancy ones) within 10-15 minutes driving and a wide variety of unique bed and breakfasts. Our web site has more information about accommodations.
Q: I'm an experienced dancer. Do you have any advanced dancing sessions?
A: Yes, they're clearly labeled on the schedules. Keep in mind that the level of dancing throughout the weekend is generally fairly good in any session. We do welcome beginners, but by far the large majority of attendees are experienced dancers.
Q: Who are the bands, musicians, leaders, and teachers? I've never heard of some of these people.
A: Good! The program team tries to put together a mix of people you already know with some people who are great but you may not know them yet. You can read about all their interesting backgrounds in the staff section. They are awesome!
Q: How do I get directions to the event?
A: We have a map and written directions on our web site.
The event is held at:
Clague Middle School
2616 Nixon Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Q: Who puts this event on?
A: The event is organized and planned by the Dawn Dance Weekend Committee, which is an all-volunteer group of about 20+ people from Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Lansing, and elsewhere in SE Michigan. The event is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Council for Traditional Music and Dance (AACTMAD). The event is run with the aid of 75 more volunteers from nearby communities. Extra help is always appreciated - see the Volunteers section.
Q: How did you choose the performers?
A: We start from a desire to make the event different every year; to draw on the talents of wonderful Michigan performers; and to give Michigan dancers a chance to experience a variety of out-of-town performers we don't normally have a chance to see during the year. The whole planning committee meets to debrief soon after each year's event and collects a long list of ideas for the following year -- setting goals for the next year, listing performers we'd like to see, and identifying areas for improvement. The program team works as a subgroup of the planning committee, booking the performers and developing the detailed program schedule. The program team keeps working almost year-round. In the last few years, the program team has also gathered input from numerous local music and dance groups and then met several times over nine or ten months to incorporate as many of the committee's and other people's suggestions as possible, as well as to make a schedule that works well for dancers and others.
Q: I suggested a particular performer who's not on the schedule; why not? Or: I wanted to perform at this event; why wasn't I invited? Or: I performed last year but I wasn't invited this year; why not?
A: We do appreciate all the suggestions we get, and we do consider them all. We are limited by time, budget, and space. We also try to include different performers every year to make each year a unique event with its own special mix of opportunities for attendees. We also have to use our subjective judgment about what mix of things will work together best. This year's program committee has about 85 years of dance organizing experience among them. We do give the program a lot of thought and we do the best we can to put on a creative, coherent, surprising event that offers our dancers some moments of pure transcendent joy. Please continue to give us your suggestions; filling out an event questionnaire at the event is a great way to give us your ideas.
Q: We noticed the sound has improved in the gym in recent years. What is different?
A: The gym is inherently a difficult room for good sound. The 2001 planning committee put this issue at the top of the priority list for improvement. As a result, we have tripled our sound budget and hired a professional sound company to help set up and run the equipment in the gym. We also created sound baffling and changed the way the speakers were set up. With these changes, we have noticed much better sound quality. We continue to work with the professional-grade sound equipment and have professional help with the gym sound setup. In addition to the pros, we also have a great crew of dance-expert sound techs who run the systems. They often know more than the pros do about the subtleties of what the dancers need and where the problems may arise. So we're going for a judicious combination of skill sets that will make it possible for us to hear the great performers we've brought together.
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